TRIAXDRIA. 313 



2. Dlgyma. This important Order consists of the 

 true Grasses; see/;. 99. Their habit is more easily 

 perceived than defined ; their value, as furnishing 

 herbage for cattle, and grain for man, is sufikiently 

 obvious. No poisonous plant is found among them, 

 except the Lolium temulentum, Engl. Bot, t. 1 1 24, 

 said to be intoxicating and pernicious in bread. Their 

 genera are not easily defined. Linnaeus, Jussieu, and 

 most botanists, pay regard to the number of florets- 

 in each spikelet; but in Arundo this is of no mo- 

 ment. Magnificent and valuable 'works on this 

 family have been published in Germany by the cele- 

 brated Schreber and by Dr. Host. The FL Grceca 

 also is rich in this department, to which the late 

 Dr. Sibthorp paid great attention. Much is to be 

 expected from scientific agriculturists ; biit Nature 

 so absolutely, in general, accommodates each grass 

 to its own soil and station, that nothing is more 

 difficult than to overcome their habits, insomuch 

 that fe\y grasses can be generally cultivated at plea- 

 sure. 



3. Trlgi/nia is chiefly composed of little pink-like 

 [)lants, ox, Carijophijllecey as Holosteuvi, EfigL Bot. 

 t. 27. 



Tillcea muscosa, t. I IG, has the number proper 

 to this order, but the rest of the oenus bears every 

 part of the fructification in fours. Tiiis in Linnaean 

 language is expressed by saying the flower of Tillcea 



